Originally Posted by Cat Herder:
I understand what you are saying. 
In my local area, it is the opposite. Our community has been ravaged by meth, heroin and pill mills. It is very inconsistent based on where programs are located. I wonder if the studies account for that?
I have never read a study that did account for it. I would be interested to see if economic status affected expulsion rates more than race or even gender.
Where my mom teaches is similar to what you're saying. It's a primarily white community, over 80% below the poverty level, lots of heroin and meth. Something close to half of the students in her school receive some level of additional intervention, behavioral or academic. There are so many expulsions in our county, that several school districts got together and organized a special program for these students to continue attending school. All are bused to a different district and attend a program for at risk youth. It goes from UPK-12th now, too. I wonder if I could find demographic information for the program. There are so many factors at play with education and behavior, that I think it's impossible to attribute to any one issue, but I know it starts in the home.